“I… I don’t know!” Panic edged into her voice. This wasn’t the fear of a woman caught in a lie. This was the raw, unadulterated terror of a woman realizing she was standing on a trapdoor that had just swung open.
“He told me they were reimbursement entities,” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes. “Julian told me.”
“My husband told you to put your name on shell companies?”
“You think I’m his mistress,” she cried, tears finally spilling over. “I know you saw the watch. You think I’m sleeping with him.”
“The watch certainly suggests a very deep affection,” I said coldly.
“I’m not his mistress, Evelyn!” Chloe slammed her hands on her knees. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
Before she could speak, my office door violently crashed open.
Julian stormed in, his eyes wide, his chest heaving. “Chloe! Don’t say another word to her!”
Chloe froze in her chair, terrified.
I stood up slowly. “What exactly am I not supposed to know, Julian?”
Julian glared at me, his handsome face twisted into something ugly and desperate. “You’re in over your head, Evelyn. You think you can waltz in here and play boss? You have no idea what you’re walking into.”
“I know I’m looking at a man who embezzled millions,” I shot back. “Security is on their way to escort you out of the building. You are suspended pending the board’s review.”
Julian laughed, a harsh, grating sound. “You’re throwing me out of my own family’s company?”
The husband I knew vanished in that moment. The man standing before me was a cornered animal.
As two burly security guards appeared in the doorway, Chloe finally broke.
“He’s my brother,” she sobbed into her hands.
The room fell dead silent. Even Julian stopped struggling against the guards.
I stared at her. “What?”
“Half-brother,” Chloe wept.
The pieces slammed together in my mind with sickening clarity. Julian’s mother, Margaret Vance, the formidable matriarch of the family, had a secret. A child born before her marriage, hidden away overseas to protect the family reputation. Julian had found her six years ago, brought her into the company, bought her loyalty with expensive watches, and used her identity to set up fraudulent companies.
He hadn’t been having an affair. He had been framing his own sister.
“Get him out of my sight,” I told security.
